THEATRE GOSSIP #120 - "BOBBY, BABY, BOBBY, BUBBE, BOBBY" Edition

Bobby Steggart is OUT - just in time for previews of BIG FISH! And the reviews from the first preview are IN and it's a hit! And so is its gay leading man! Ring Bells! Sing Songs!
The Search for Fraulein Schneider - Who is the lucky girl to be? Who will leave the bourgeoisie? Liza would be a coup for the two days she'd actually show up, then Lenora Nemetz would have to take over. Marthe Keller - has she done anything since "Marathon Man"? Looks great for her age, though. Cindy Lauper - not bad! Maybe she and Harvey should switch that rumor, though, and have Harve play Schneider and Lauper play Herr Schulz.
DL has been out-bitched by BWW and ATC. Too many up and coming nasties to keep up with. Dramedy and his weekly nut create the biggest sin of all - he's boring.
Daniel Sunjata - play on, MacDuff!
The second coming at Glass Menagerie! People have stopped breathing! Cherry Jones is healing the blind and the lame! Get your tickets now because it's a limited RUN!
At last Rebecca is on Broadway! Not the musical, but even better - the divine Miss Luker, looking ever so much more lovely in the dress and the antennae than Vicky Clark did. And much adored by the cast already!
WHO is rehearsing their trapeze act even as we speak? Could it be Faith Prince is ready to bail on that orphan flop and join the circus like she wanted to, when she was a lass?
James Lapine: How did that career happen?
COCO: Really, it's CACA, trust me on this.
The season is afoot - let's get some reports going!
MLLE. MODISTE! THE DESERT SONG! GOLDEN DAWN!!!!
The doctor will see you now ...

If the first post goes so long that you have to click "more" to see the rambling of the less clever than he think he is OP, it's time to just cut this crap and go with "because 119 was full" route,
That said, LOVE Bobby Steggert.

I love OP!

I don't know how many people on the board go to the cd signings at Barnes and Nobles. Not only do you get the cds signed you get a live performance from many of the stars in the show. If you can go, go....
On Wednesday, HANDS ON A HARD BODY celebrated their release of the Cd with many of the cast.
These are now done at B&N on East 86th Street. A little harder getting to than the Lincoln Center which I really miss. I can't always get out of work that early. I went to so many of them a† Lincoln Center in addition to indivual performers while it was there.
In the past few months, PIPPIN, CINDERELLA, KINKY BOOTS, ANNIE, GIANT and SCANDALOUS were part of it. last year NEWSIES, DROOD, etc.
On Friday, September 20th York Theatres CLOSER THAN EVER will be celebrated, hoping I can go as it is in the middle of our preparation for the dinners at work which are the next week.

mlop

Perhaps you haven't heard that my TV Land series has been shitcanned?
Call me . . .

Fraulein%20Fran%20Drescher

There's a great quality boot of Yank! in circulation, when it played in Brooklyn, in which Bobby Steggart was illuminating.

Bobby Steggert is out--someone fetch my smelling salts

Yup

a revival of a revival of a revival of Cabaret-which Roundabout didnt produce to begin with--how do they get away with this shit
cant wait for the bway revivals of Man of La Mancha with Stokes and Guys and Dolls with Lane & Prince--

So SOMEONE let us know about big fish

Best yet, OP. Probably better than any of the crap that will follow. And so far, I'm proved right, although I'm also a Bobby lover. He's my guilty pleasure, but at least I realize that!

Anonymous

How can I get my hands on that boot of Yank?

Frank DiLella sings (with very weak protests) in On Stage America September. This show is such a vanity project.
And there's a profile of Rachelle Rak, who I don't know except on this board. I hear she has a side job?

[quote]a revival of a revival of a revival of Cabaret-which Roundabout didnt produce to begin with--how do they get away with this shit
So what? It was great production. Another generation gets to see it. This affects your life, how?

another generation? it ran for six years and closed 9 years ago

revamp of Broadwayworld website is virtually unreadable

They desperately need to do a revival of 'A Mother's Kisses' that had starred Bea Arthur

Any chance this Menagerie might get a PBS taping/airing? The other recorded ones are pretty unsatisfactory.

I don't know if the previous post about Marthe Keller as Fraulein S. was serious, but mark my words, if it was....she'll be gone before previews begin.

Love Bobby. He's lookin' FINE.
For some reason I thought he was younger than 32.

Raul

[quote] I don't know if the previous post about Marthe Keller as Fraulein S. was serious, but mark my words, if it was....she'll be gone before previews begin.
Care to elaborate.
I wish they'd give it to Polly Bergen. It was such a departure to hear those songs sung by a singer who can hold notes.

R30:
Which production did you get orchestra seats for on a Monday??
OP:
ROTFLAMO!!! re:
"The second coming at Glass Menagerie! People have stopped breathing! Cherry Jones is healing the blind and the lame! Get your tickets now because it's a limited RUN!"

Buzzie -- back and as annoying as ever!!!

I'll never forget Ruth Buzzi in EVITA.

Mr%20Burt%20Reynolds

Why was Ken Barnett replaced as the costar of "Gentlemen's Guide to Murder..."?

Is Glass Menagerie selling well? $137 for literally every seat in the house is ridiculous. I'd like to see Cherry Jones on stage again, but for that price, I should get to watch her from Brian J. Smith's lap, not the back of the mezzanine.

I love that people here hate Buzzie!!!! My friend used to get in fights with him constantly. He would always tell her she was a rude little girl.

Faye Dunaway as Frau Schneider in Cabaret

Joe Manjello for one of the two "ladies".

Liz Callaway for Frau Schneider - she could use a job and she is no darn nice.

r43 mlop?

Chits%20Rivers

Polly Bergen did play Schneider in the original Roundabout production (around the time Stamos was MC.)

buzzie always makes it about himself.... his second thread started he started today that he is back and tappin'.
Wait till he gets pissed off and announces on the board that he is leaving the site. He did that at least three times before. It's coming.

Marthe received a Tony nomination for Judgement at Nuremberg
(the production where Maximillin Schell climbed onto the theatre roof a la Bai Ling)

Theatre gossip 119 ended with the suggestion Lena Dunham play COCO.
I assume they meant James Coco?

Which one of you bitches is Rangerette? And how can I THANK you??
************************************
You can imagine my shock when the cardioligist said. . .
Posted by:\tbuzzie 08:20 pm EDT 09/06/13
. . ."buzzie, I think it's time to pull your tap shoes back on."
But I wish you could have seen his face when I said, "Silly boy, I never took them off."
buzzie, on the lookout for a very large soup can on which to choreograph my comeback
*************************************
how is this "on topic"
Posted by:\tRangerette 10:34 pm EDT 09/07/13
jesh!

DL fave Bobby Steggart lives in Inwood. I'll bet some posters here have seen him. Does his BF live with him? Do they go to the weekend farmers market together? Do they hang out in that coffee place on Bway?

Inwood? Up at the top? oh my.

went%20to%20the%20cloisters%20in%203rd%20grade

Who is Bobby's bf now?

Raul%2C%20unattached%20at%20present

buzzie has been absent from ATC for a long time. Except for his post on Kim Novak's interview on TMC, every comment has been about himself.

my vote for Fraulein Schneider: Michelle Pawk

Is it bad that I want to know what Buzzie looks like?

Doesn't NYC in cooperation with (I think) the Broadway League still that free Times Square Concert on an early Sunday in September showcase forthcoming Broadway musicals and existing shows?
I want to go this year.

Get that opera singer from the CAROUSEL concert for Schneider.

Wasn't she a great big fat person?

[quote]Bobby's sexuality was never a question to those who've worked with him, or dined with him
Or dined ON him.

r52: And most importantly, do they wear flip-flops?
The DL "Broadway Flip-Flop Feets" troll NEEDS TO KNOW!

Fan%20of%20the%20B.F-F.F%20Troll

[quote]Doesn't NYC in cooperation with (I think) the Broadway League still that free Times Square Concert on an early Sunday in September showcase forthcoming Broadway musicals and existing shows? I want to go this year.
Broadway On Broadway. Not this year. Wonder why?

How come nobody ask about me? Disposed Russian aristocrat, singer of cabaret songs by night, legal secretary by day,foe of the mlop!!!

do re milla

Because someone constructed an "Aristocrats"- style joke with her at the center, it flew around the four corners of the Internet (which was featured in a blurb in New York Magazine) and that, basically, was the last we heard from her.

Scott Rudin jizzed all over the first six pages of my N Y Times fall prevue

GLASS MENAGERIE is all that.
Gorgeous and perfect.
Something finally lives up to its hype.
Jones and Quinto are both sublime.
It's such a great play.
Go see it.

[quote] Thinking of seeing the Globe Theater double bill of RICHARD III and TWELFTH NIGHT with Mark Rylance. Anyone here see these in London?
Saw them when they went to the West End. The Richard is good - surprisingly funny and with even a bit of a camp element to it. But the Twelfth Night is absolutely one of the greatest things I've seen. It's wonderful.

Lenora Nemetz for Fraulein Schneider. She played Kost and u/s'd Schneider on tour. This woman needs to be back on broadway. She also needs a Tony award. I've loved her since she played Velma in the original Chicago back in the 70's. She's a treasure.

Nemetz originating Schneider? Nunsense! I mean, nonsense!

No, she understudied Schneider R72, in the Roundabout revival. Mid-run.

r73
I meant the suggestion of her originating it. Not because of her talent, but because of industry snobbery about performers who create roles, and those who are "only suitable" to replace.

It's Roundabout, people. They cast names, and pay shit, and then leave the actors to fend for themselves. Faith Prince had to hire her own dresser for "Little Me".

Some joke about do_re_milla was featured in New York Magazine, r65? What was it?

[quote]Bobby's sexuality was never a question to those who've worked with him, or dined with him... Or dined ON him.
Or has a head.
[quote]Rylance's turns in Boeing Boeing and Jerusalem were astonishing. Looking forward to 12th Night also.
Saw his hardon. The mystery is gone.

Sorry to break-up the lovefest but I find Mark Rylance as ANNOYING as Alan Cumming.

R80. Thank you for the Rylance debunking. He can be very effective but he's always a female Fiona Shaw: LOOK AT ME. I'M ACTING!

Lord%20Olivier

R52 - I live in Inwood and have seen Bobby on the A train several times. Always alone, though. Never seen him at the farmer's market, or at Darling Coffee.

No mention yet of Patrick Pacheco's pathetic shilling of his awful sounding adaptation of Pal Joey on NY1 Onstage's Fall Preview? It's being done at Arkansas Rep. Joey is black and Vera is white-oy. The still photos alone make it look terrible.
On the same broadcast Roma Torre was under the mistaken impression that Jefferson Mays was in I Love My Wife, not I Am My Own Wife.
And Frank DiLella continues to be a sycophantic imbecile.

R83, what I found interesting was Roma saying how, for the first time ever, we're getting 10 revivals this season "and they're all plays," making no mention whatsoever of the CABARET revival.

It's not called Moron Stage for nothing.

I was at the last performance of HARBOR and overheard an uberfan of QAF gabbing nonstop to his poor theater neighbors about how he went to a QAF reunion, how he heard that Randy would sign autograph today, since it's the last performance and he didn't the first act was that bad, especially with a "star" in the play.
Bobby Steggert would have been better,

Gale

What show is this song from?
"Oh, the Wells Fargo wagon is a cooooming down the street!"

It's from "The Music Man" R87

I must have missed the casting of former-fattie-turned-hottie Josh Young is play Che in the tour of EVITA.

bumpy

bottom of the barrel

R67. It cured my aunt's post polio syndrome and I no longer have a need for my eyeglasses. Cherry Jones' Amanda done worked itself two miracles at the super special preview it did.
Highly recommend it. Seriously. It's fab.

There's more to the new PAL JOEY than just the black-white angle. Joey is a bisexual who will sleep with anyone who can get him where he wants to go. The male pianist at the club is in love with him. It takes place in 1948, and they have interpolated a host of other Rodgers and Hart songs like "Sing for Your Supper" and "Glad to Be Unhappy."
I haven't seen it, but I've read the script. It stinks.

Viv%20Segal

I had been impotent for years, but since seeing Cherry Jones in "The Glass Menagerie," the erections have been coming fast and furious.

Hal%20Prince

[quote]DL fave Bobby Steggart lives in Inwood.
Given his recent revelation, shouldn't he move to OUTwood?

Try%20the%20veal

I wonder if he lives at the intersection of Seamen and Cumming. Yes, there really is such an intersection in Inwood.

Again, I ask:
Who is Bobby's new bf?

Raul.%20unattached%20at%20present

R76: My mistake. It wasn't New York Magazine, it was Time Out New York:

So whatever happened to Daniel Curry, the Spiderman dancer who was injured a couple of months ago. Is he out of the hospital? Is he back in the show?

Chris%20T

I saw "The Weir" yesterday at The Irish Rep. Theatre... Lord I had no idea their space was so tiny! I've done community theater over the years in many different spaces... never performed in such a small space! How do they make the place an ongoing concern? Incredible.
I thought Dan Butler was in the cast, but was mistaken (did he leave in August when the show was extended?). Damn, I really wanted to see him on stage again. I've got a soft-spot for him... well, not soft; he was so sexy on Frasier years ago and I think he's aged into quite the "Daddy".
Oh yea, "The Weir" is excellent.

Yes, why exactly was Pacheco allowed such a long time to shill his own show? Isn't there a conflict of interests there?

Seaman also comes across Dyckman. The irony!
Can we assume Bobby moved there for the street signs?

Are the original PAL JOEY stories any good?

Is the original book of "Pal Joey" so antique it needs adaptation? I saw a production in the 1980s in London, Ontario with Martha Henry and, whatever version it was, it seemed fine to me.
r106, the trouble with John O'Hara's Pal Joey stories, like Damon Runyon's Guys and Dolls stories and Sholem Aleichem's Fiddler on the Roof stories, is there are no damn songs in them. Not nearly as much fun.

R39 is correct, the pricing is outrageous.

You people don't understand 'ow hard it is for a penniless, titleless, Russian aristocrat to make it in the city, in the world of cabaret with no backing whatsoever. I lives a meager life in my five floor walk up. But I do it for my art, for my craft, for my gift of song.
And no birthday wishes from me to you!

Yes, Tony or no Tony, I also thought Mark Rylance was awful in "Jerusalem" - look at me, I'm ACTING!!!!

Anyone who bottomed for Laurents was a ninny.

Kids, Jerusalem could take the ham acting, but 12th Night is something else again. And top of that, he's really homely as a woman.

Anonymous

[quote]I saw "The Weir" yesterday at The Irish Rep. Theatre... Lord I had no idea their space was so tiny! I've done community theater over the years in many different spaces... never performed in such a small space!
The Irish Curse!

PAL JOEY was also done at Encores! in 1995, starring Peter Gallagher and Patti LuPone. The original book was used, perhaps slightly edited, and I don't remember anyone saying there was anything wrong with the show as written or that it needed to be reworked.

Rylance played a larger-than-life character who was frequently "performing" for his acolytes in JERUSALEM, so the "ham" factor was appropriate and it worked.
R103, Butler was indeed in THE WIER but, as you say, must have left after the show was extended.

I though Encores! are usually pretty faithful to how the music is written. Patti LuPone is not a could match for a Vivienne Segal role.

Christine%20Andreas

Though I didn't see the Encores Pal Joey I love the cd and still play it frequently. Patti is just fine as Vera, maybe even much better than just fine.
Peter Gallagher is perfect and Bebe sells Zip!
Also great is that redhead who plays Melba, forgetting her name but you know who I mean and even Daisy Prince as Little Mousie.
Another great recording is the revival cd with Harold Lang, Elaine Stritch and Helen Gallagher but with gorgeous-voiced Jane Froman, subbing for (I think) Vivien Segal who perhaps had a conflict with record companies back then.
And with that cd you get the huge added bonus of the soundtrack of Jane's bio With a Song in My Heart.

Glee is shooting today in front of the St. James Theater where there's a marquee up of Funny Girl. Please God that little cunt didn't get the role.

Saw BIG FISH over the weekend. Not as bad as I had heard from Chicago, but it's not very engaging. You sort of watch it like a painting. Norbert is working his ass off, and Baldwin is great. There's just not a lot of drama. It's all about anger and fantasy. I imagine the critics will give it a pass, because it is serious and ambitious.

Harold Lang and Vivienne Segal don't appear on the Stritch-Gallagher recording, I assume because they had just recorded the famous 1950 Columbia studio cast album that renewed interest in the show and led directly to the revival. Wasn't the revival recorded on Capitol? I'm sure there was a contract conflict, but Lang, I believe, was replaced by Dick Beavers, who sings the "Girl on the Magazine Cover" number in the movie Easter Parade. Segal, as you said, R122, was replaced by Jane Froman.

The first revival cast had Dick Haymes and Jane Froman instead of Harold Lang and Vivienne Segal, who had already done a studio cast prior to headlining the revival.
I've only heard LuPone and Neuwirth from the Encores! CD and they're not a patch on Segal and Stritch.
Who did play Stritch's role in the original production?

R128. June Havoc.

Viv

I went to the last show of Harbor as well. It was pretty dreadful, but Randy Harrison is still adorable.
What do we know about the author Chad Beguelin? I believe I was sitting near him. Much like the characters in the play he looked like a fancy pocket gay, fuckable if he shut up.

R128. Apologies. Viv's so old now she forgets absolutely everything. June Havoc played the first Gladys Bumps. The Stritch prt was creted by sojeoe nmed Jean Casto. Sorry for misleading you!

Wouldn't Annie and Cinderella have lower box office due to the new school year? Who takes their kids out of school and goes for a New York vacation right after school resumes?

"I saw 'The Weir' yesterday at The Irish Rep. Theatre... Lord I had no idea their space was so tiny!"
The Irish Rep theater is by no means "tiny" by Off-Broadway standards, though it is an odd setup.
Regarding the fake FUNNY GIRL marquee at the St. James: What I really love (that is, hate) about it is how it says "FUNNY GIRL, The Musical." As opposed to what? The ice show? The ballet?

I heard from someone who worked on the Little Rock Pal Joey that its dreams of a transfer are just that . . . dreams.

I knew Harold Lang in his later, dissolute years. He was so drunk one night that he fell on top of me, long enough for me to tell he had a rather large pal joey.

The Glass Menagerie is raising the dead - according to Cherry herself....

R134. Of course those shows will fall drastically. I wasn't questioning the reasons. Only that the summer has ended, which I said. Reading comprehension much? Even Wicked and Lion King fell to their recent lowest.

Anonymous

The Pal Joey revival with Stockard Channing was far better than legend has it.

The Pal Joey revival was ruined by that cheap black gloomy set and....Stockard Channing's age.
Also by the lack of star power in the eponymous lead.

Christian%20Hoff

I saw "The Weir" yesterday at The Irish Rep. Theatre... Lord I had no idea their space was so tiny! I've done community theater over the years in many different spaces... never performed in such a small space!
The Irish Curse!
HA! that's great... especially because I saw the play, "The Irish Curse" several years ago in NYC and in the cast was Dan Butler who was recently performing in "The Weir" at Irish Rep!

a%20Dan%20Butler%20fan%20-%20oh%20that%20hairy%20chest%21

[quote]Regarding the fake FUNNY GIRL marquee at the St. James: What I really love (that is, hate) about it is how it says "FUNNY GIRL, The Musical." As opposed to what? The ice show? The ballet?
Are they filming "Glee" there?

Does anybody know anything about Richard Fleeshman? He's so dreamy. Is he gay?

"Rylance played a larger-than-life character who was frequently "performing" for his acolytes in JERUSALEM, so the "ham" factor was appropriate and it worked."
No it did not, despite what the NY Times thought.
Speaking of the Times, Brantley has to be gone soon, right?

What is all this hang wringing over Patti's failure to land the Helen Sinclair role? She is 20 years too old for it. Period. Someone like Antonia Ellis 30 years ago would be perfect. She was in the Boyfriend movie as Maisie in a truly brilliant performance. Helen Mirren 30 years ago would also do. Glenda Jackson too. Guess I am thinking British actress for the part. Does Catherine Zeta Jones has the right stuff for it?

Antonia Ellis was also the original London Roxie Hart.

Jane Horrocks could play Helen Sinclair in her sleep.

The Stockard Channing Pal Joey was awful. The script changes were terrible, Stockyard stank, and there was a big black hole at the center where Joey should have been.

Harold%20Lang%27s%20supple%20ass

WEHT Christian Hoff? He's basically dropped off the face of the earth.

That "rumour" about Lauper and Fierstein was a joke post by me. It is a horrible idea and I am stumped that anyone took it seriously
"Aaaand da sun will raw-eyez and da moon will set, everybody say yeeeah."
"A pineapple for me for me for meeee"
Really, folks?

Hedwig to play The Belasco?
I hate the theatres east of Bway. Why couldn't NPH book a real theatre?

R175. The Longacre is no longer shabby. It's smart and slightly more desirable. For shabby, try the Lyceum or Cort, both in solid need of a cleaning lady and then some. And they're both on the scurvy side of Broadway and both have dreaded second balconies!

Good job for Andy Karl. And finally a major role in a major production. It's his big chance. Keep your fingers crossed.

Orfeh

Does Andy have the D to live up to his major case of BDF?

[quote] Hedwig to play The Belasco? I hate the theatres east of Bway. Why couldn't NPH book a real theatre?
For a Broadway version of Hedwig, the Belasco sort of makes sense. Isn't there an element to the script that Hedwig is performing in a less than desirable venue? Even though the Belasco is now gorgeous, it's still the most remote of the east of Broadway theatres.

[quote]Regarding "Rocky Das Musical"...the Germans loved it. For whatever that's worth. Huge, smash hit in Hamburg. Will that translate to Bway tourist tastes? Maybe, maybe not.
Have you seen the clips, it looks terrific and with Andy Karl in the lead makes it all the better.

The Helen Hayes would have been good for Hedwig,,,will R of A ever close?

[quote]Helen Hayes would have been good for Hedwig
Would she have been able to hit the high notes?

hee hee r192

Better Question. Will that fucking MAMA MIA ever close?

R194. Don't be a dope. Someone is about to spend a fortune to move that steaming pile from the Winter Garden to the Broadhurst (a very desirable house). Nobody sees a closing in the immediate future, although this week's grosses may make a lot of theaters available sooner rather than later.

The%20Nut%20Man

R191 I thought Second Stage bought the Helen Hayes and they're taking over as soon as Rock of Ages closes.

I think that Second Stage announcement was SO premature.

OMG is Rok of Ages still running. Who the fuck is going to see that piece of shit? Can there be any suburban fraus left who haven't seen it twice already???

Harvey Fierstein has a show where men dress as women. Good god enough is enough. It's become a fuckin' bore. Take it back off off broadway for Pete's sake.

Supposedly Second Stage is still buying the HELEN HAYES, but I'll believe it when I see it.

The%20Love%20Bug

who owns the Helen Hayes now?

What is Chad Kimball up to these days?

Wayman%20Wong%20and%20Friends

Excited to see "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" at the Kerr this fall. Jefferson Mays is a force to be reckoned with. Unfortunate how much the casting has changed since the regional productions, but I'm sure Bryce Pinkham will do a great job! The director [Darko Tresnjak] is all sorts of adorable. Should be a good time!

Why did Helen Hayes get two theatres?
They tore down the first one.

[quote]Jefferson Mays is a force to be reckoned with
he creeps me out.

Straight%3F%20really%3F%20oh%20my.

Jefferson Mays was one of the few people who accompanied that wife of Astor son Anthony Marshall to her husband's trial.

The Helen Hayes is the single most uncomfortable theatre I have sat in (rivaled only by the balcony/mezzanine at the Walter Kerr)--everytime I've gone, I've practically needed PT to start my blood circulation in my knees afterwards.

R207 He looks like Benjamin Button, The Fetal Years.

The aisle seats in the last two rows of the orchestra at the Hayes are bearable, and the balcony is slightly more bearable than the orchestra. But, yeah, it's excruciating.

Will Harvey F. also STAR in his new play at MTC?
Or will Lynne Meadow offer the lead role to Nathan Lane?
God, enough already with the drag queens on Broadway - even I'm sick of them.

The%20Lady%20Bunny%20%28like%20me%20on%20FB%29

mlop on 9/11:
But grateful thanks to ALL THAT CHAT on that horrible day and those after to let us talk with each other on the board and to make sure that we heard from everyone on it to know they are okay. It was a comfort to all of us to express and communicate our feelings and not to feel so scared and alone.
PS we heard from everyone.

she%20started%20a%20sentence%20with%20but%21%21%21%21

The frst person we heard from was Milla that she was okay. The day was filled with tragedies ikel tha.
Mary Ann

mlop

[quote]PS we heard from everyone.
bitch!!

La%20Chanze

Better yet, Harvey's play is about STRAIGHT men who like to dress as women. I mean, really,

John Cullum, Danny Glover and Len Cariou have all done readings of Fierstein's new play - Fierstein took part as an actor in only one of them.
In an unrelated question - the Guys and Dolls lyric "the breakfast eating Brooks Brothers type" - was eating breakfast considered a middle class thing? Or did working class guys see it as "breakfast is for pussies"?

R212. I heard that Lynne wants to the bag the leading role for herself. The only thing she has done in drag is act a part!

Anonymous

I was OK.. no one asked. But I was OK.

AlanScott, theatrical historian to all

I miss the Morosco and the old Helen Hayes.

an elder theatre queen

I'm looking forward to finally seeing Andy Karl wtihout his shirt

[quote]OMG is Rok of Ages still running. Who the fuck is going to see that piece of shit?
Jerseyites and Long Islanders who can't get tickets to JERSEY BOYS. Seriously.

Trained monkeys can get tickets to Jersey Boys these days. There's no excuse for ROA!

Anonymous

Sorry, the worst seats on Broadway is the balcony, at Studio 54. The back of the seats are wood and you can't feel your legs at the curtain call.
{quote]I miss the Morosco and the old Helen Hayes.
I have a brick from The Morosco. I was a kid and my family was there the day they demolished it, and construction worker let me come in the fence and grab one.

BIG FISH-oy vey, where to even begin
so much for inviting Stro to your cocktails parties to reassure skittish investors

r217, do you mean John Glover, not Danny? Because I know John G was involved.

I also have a brick from the Morosco, r224!

It wasnt the Morosco, it was the Belasco

Al%20Lewis

r217 - I think the implication is that Sky and his cronies slept too late to eat breakfast. Breakfast was only for those with 9 to 5 jobs.

R220: me, too! Moved to NYC (lived there during the 80's) about a month before demolition. Remember reading that Joe Papp and Coleen Dewhurst (and others?) were literally going to lay down in front of the bulldozers when they realized: shit, the bulldozers weren't going to stop. If I remember correctly...??
I had a few years before seen something at the Morosco. Sad times.

Elder%20hag

There has to be a Helen Hayes theater. Always. Or else she comes back.

Good memories of seeing the divine Joan Hackett in the thriller NIGHT WATCH at the Morosco. And my college group a week i NY) always stayed next door at the Piccadilly Hotel. They had the greatest bar there.. where 18 year olds could get a drink.

I'll have another Tom Collins, I don't care if I miss part of EQUUS!

Listening to the live recording of Drat the Cat. Did anyone see it during its brief run? The audience is in constant hysterics throughout. And the recording only includes the songs!

OK, who's playing CeeCee in the Signature Theater's world premiere of the musical version Beaches in February? Iris Rainer Dart has written book and lyrics (based on her novel) and David Austin has written the music. Of course Eric Schaeffer is directing.

re: Tovah thats earth shattering

is Kate Baldwin going to make a career out of playing Bobby Steggerts mother?

Bette is reprising the role of C.C.
Dim lighting and a well-placed scrim will work wonders.
Has anyone been to Miss Saigon at Signature? How are the $40 seats in the second level?

Who the hell designed the Broadway World new website? What a friggin' mess. Fire the nerd!

who's Felda Toeshoe?

Terence%20mcNally

Can Ari Graynor sing?

Is Eric Schaeffer the worst director in history? Methinks so.

Tovah's already made a sign-up sheet for a company do-it-yourself Pippin picnic (called a Pip-nic). $40 per person, cash only. Once the less high holy days are over!

Charlotte%20D.%20%28not%20going%29

[quote]construction worker let me come in the fence
HAWT!!!

I asked that cute little house manager at Second Stage about the Helen Hayes. He said that the ongoing run of Rock of Ages had indeed altered the plans for 2nd Stage to take over the Helen Hayes. He was a little vague about the details, but I got the impression that the deal had fallen through.

[quote]Who the hell designed the Broadway World new website? What a friggin' mess. Fire the nerd!
I know, it won't even load for me in Internet Explorer. If I want to read it, I have to shift over to FireFox. Wouldn't bother but it's fun reading about some asshole who has a nervous breakdown every time Lea Michele's name is mentions. Apparently their paths crossed and she was mean to him and he has never been the same again. He uses BroadwayWorld.com as his therapy sessions.

Miss Saigon at Signature is a good production of an awful show. If you buy into the show itself (which I don't), you might enjoy it. Cool design. And the cheap seats at Signature are usually pretty decent.

"Good memories of seeing the divine Joan Hackett in the thriller NIGHT WATCH at the Morosco. And my college group a week i NY) always stayed next door at the Piccadilly Hotel. They had the greatest bar there.. where 18 year olds could get a drink."
With Len Cariou, in his prime, playing Joan's husband.

"Who the hell designed the Broadway World new website? What a friggin' mess. Fire the nerd!"
Probably the same idiot who designed the new New York Post site.

"Who the hell designed the Broadway World new website? What a friggin' mess. Fire the nerd!"
"Probably the same idiot who designed the new New York Post site."
I see what you mean. Both are disasters. I tried to read something on the POST website the other day (don't ask me why!), and the page kept reloading and moving around.

[quote] it's fun reading about some asshole who has a nervous breakdown every time Lea Michele's name is mentions
He is unsufferable. But he seems to have a "get out of jail free" card on that board.

[quote]He is unsufferable. But he seems to have a "get out of jail free" card on that board.
Yeah, he was basically calling Lea the Ant-Christ and someone called him on it and he called the poster a twat. She's evil but he's sunshine. Just a jealous little never was.

[quote] I asked that cute little house manager at Second Stage about the Helen Hayes.
Surely you don't mean Her Highness Miss Joshua, THE House Manager. You must mean the Assistant House Manager, Artie, who is cute and funny and personable and sweet - the exact opposite of his boss.

Volunteer%20Usher

The last show I saw at the fabulous OLD Helen Hayes Theater was the Charles Strouse musical Charlie and Algernon, which, in my dim memory, was a lot better than you'd ever believe.

Sandy%20Faison

[quote]he was basically calling Lea the Ant-Christ
It's true. She's adored by ants near and far.

Broadwayworld posters are unbearable, especially those "Broadway Legends" that think they are superior just because they've spent the last 8 years on a message board: FindindNamo, PRS, the drag queen, the guy that was always like "Arthur Laurents is the DEVIL, he BETRAYED ME!!....but I won't say anything", that old bitter curtainpulldowner, the other guy that talks shit about performers because he heard they were "mean" or "crazy" (yet he has Betty Buckley on his avatar), Bestsomethingsomething, and many, many more.
Occasionally you will get some great posts, even from this group of wannabe "Heathers", but most of the time is just post after post of assholes derailing a thread, trying to be funnier than the one before.
A shame, it used to be a fun website (much better than the awful ATC or his parody, TAC)

That K-ri-tz-erland guy is awful too, which is pretty ill-advised on his part, considering potential customers read his comments.

LOL, Charlotte D/R243. You've appropriated a story I told here quite a few years ago about Vulva Toadstool "throwing" a picnic on Stratford Common back in the 70s and on the sign-in sheet it said "Bring your own grub and booze-AND NO KIDS!" It was when she was playing Juliet.

The "celebrity table" at the Broadway Cares Flea Market has the biggest set of nobodies they've ever had. When they are featuring the umpteenth sidekick in Mamma Mia!, they are in trouble. I wonder why they can't get bigger names this year.

My favorite part about mlop's 9/11 post is that she titled it "9-ll." Those are letter Ls and not number ones!

R258. Tovah as Juliet. Ye Gods, that must have been fifty years ago! Was she Terry then? A pocket ingenue? All hard to imagine! And now she has to climb up into the trapeze every night and twice on Weds and Sats.

Who is on for Billy Porter in KINKY BOOTS? I hear he is on vacation. One of you TKTS whores must know

R210: His husband is hot, however.

Harvey's doing it in blackface.

Isn't Len Cariou the one Glenn slept with to get her start in the theatre?

M

Yes, M. He was my John Cazale.

G

My very first visit to NYC to see a Broadway show at age 16, was mainly to see the original cast of Sweeney Todd. The night we arrived I had time to grab a ticket to a wonderful show I'd read about called "Strider- The Story of a Horse" that played at the old Helen Hayes. The theater had a powder blue motif inside and was quite plush. It was magical. I went backstage with my girlfriend, and chatted with the star, Gerald Hiken in his dressing room. He was warm and sweet and asked us all about school, and our plans afterward. He signed my program with a pencil, while drinking tea in his pajamas! It was one of the best days of my life.

First%20Night%20Fanny

I went to Yale! I had offers pre-Cazale! Ask Sigourney and Kristen! They were sooooo jealous!!!

M

Do we know why the "Broadway on Broadway" concert was cancelled? I don't remember anyone discussing it here.

[quote] "Strider- The Story of a Horse"
Would this play be good revival material?

SJP

Fuck off, M and G. That's a truly tired act.

P

who is P?

M%20and%20G

My first Broadway show was at the Morosco, "The Shadow Box" with DL have Mandy Patinkin and the wonderful Patricia Elliott.
I loved Strider, too, (R269). Great to hear how kind Hiken was- he was just terrific in the show.

WEHT Patricia Elliott's career?

The%20Lieder%20Singers%20from%20ALNM

Cromer Cock

[quote]It was magical. I went backstage with my girlfriend, and chatted with the star, Gerald Hiken in his dressing room. He was warm and sweet and asked us all about school, and our plans afterward. He signed my program with a pencil, while drinking tea in his pajamas! It was one of the best days of my life.
How does a 16 year old fresh off the bus get backstage?

R278, on his knees.

Karen Mason's would be perfect Baronesis in the TV Sound of Music. I hope they approach her
Maryann

mlop

mlop uses capital 'i's because the '1's are broken on her keyboard.

My first show at the Morosco was Absurd Person Singular. I remember selecting it over some tacky musical - and when it was over, wished I went to the tacky musical. I was young, very young.

The reason bobby isn't a bigger star is that he's just not that special
No better than any other decent looking gay guy on line at equity.
Right place/Right time works wonders!

It's tricky for "mild" types to gain stardom.

David%20Burtka

MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, the UK production in movie theaters Wednesday, October 23rd.
Tickets on sale now at fandango.com

Please forgive the accents! We're no better than you guys at doing non-American accents.

Maria

R283. Bobby always looks so unhappy in his pictures. Bad teefs? Dunno, but a smile on his face might make his profile a little more starry.

Anonymous

Patricia Elliott's career went the way of the bottle.

Sondheim loved the UK 'Merrily', it won more five star reviews than any musical theatre in living memory, and I loved it too. I'd book for the screening in a heartbeat. You do indeed have a good thing going.

Of course, Sondheim loved the English Merrily. He loves anything where he can see dollar signs floating in his front of his ancient eyes.

Elaine

Anyone seen the Foote play at Signature? Worth a shot? How is Betty Lynn, really?

Carrie White

R286. Maria who? Sharapova? Callas? Montez? The list could be endless, but Prime Time will soon be here!

How%20do%20you%20solve%20a%20problem%3F

"Occasionally you will get some great posts, even from this group of wannabe 'Heathers', but most of the time is just post after post of assholes derailing a thread, trying to be funnier than the one before."
Maybe it's just because you know who they are on Broadwayworld and they rankle you. Because last week one of them made W&W here, so somebody finds them funny.

Patricia Elliott had a couple of decades on ONE LIFE TO LIVE as former madam Renee Buchanan. She was good, too, and didn't look like she was a bottle baby.

Who thinks "Hedwig" can work on Broadway, even with NPH? Do they think that all those "Mother" fans want to see him as a screaming German trans-sexual? Really? What universe do those producers live in?

The London Merrily was the first I've seen. If the others were shit, perhaps it's transcendant. But I'd say it's still a show that doesn't really work. If I was supposed to feel "oh, what a tragedy... unfulfilled potential...", I didn't.
That said, Jenna Russell is wonderful, and Damian Hubley & Josefina Gabrielle were quite good.

[quote] Who thinks "Hedwig" can work on Broadway, even with NPH?
It will be in a relatively small house, compared to most of the "musical" houses on Broadway.

Let's start casting NPH's replacements.... Bette Midler?

[quote]MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, the UK production in movie theaters Wednesday, October 23rd.
Empty movie theaters Wednesday, October 23rd.

Brooks Ashmanskas - total lech and total ham

I saw HEDWIG in the West End. Didn't work. It needs a seedier venue. The junkies you had to step over to get into the Jane Street Theatre were part of the experience.

[quote]He signed my program with a pencil
But did he also use it to dial the phone?

Della%20Streetwalker

[quote]MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, the UK production in movie theaters Wednesday, October 23rd.
Aren't you more interested in "Liberty University Presents Kirk Cameron in 'Unstoppable'?" September 23rd! Get your tickets now!

Will%20they%20provide%20barf%20bags%3F%20

Steggert has basically been working steadily for the past 8 years or so.(in both musicals and plays) that about as much as any actor in NYC could hope for he is not a leading man, not a dancer, not especially funny--looks much younger than he is so he can still play jeuvinille roles--

But will Bobby still be playing young when he's 50 or will he have gone into real estate?

Norbert

How old is Bobby actually?

Bobby's 32.

Wiki

I wrote the part of the lover for Bobby Steggert in Mothers and Sons. And he still wouldn't sleep with me.

gRand%20McNally

Bobby Steggert may be out but the question is: Is Raul Esparza still jizzing inside him?

I actually think NPH in Hedwig will do well. His fans like to see him stretch himself. He's sort of a John Cameron Mitchell type anyway. He will charm the audience and that's 90% of that show.

There's not a role for David, though, is there?

Jacek would be perfect.

[quote]His fans like to see him stretch himself.
you know this how?

No mention of VPLs from Quinto or the hot bubble butt of Smith? Get thee to Menagerie, girls!

Dame Brantley gave THE OLD FRIENDS a nice respectable review, giving good notices to Buckley and Foote, but especially Smith. She thinks Charles Busch can play Cox's part. I think Cox is perfect for the role.

Glass Menagerie is indeed wonderful but Brian J Smith is wearing a pair of the most ill-fit pants in New York. And that is a waste.

I just saw the show r326; Zachary Quinto gives an amazing performance.......Cherry, whom I adore (her performances in Baltimore Waltz, The Heiress and Doubt are all among my favorite all-time peformances ever) is a different story.
She will not be winning a TONY. She performed much of the first act - especially her first scene - as Hyacinth Bucket. However I really felt her performance in the second half though.

Oh you people think you're so smart, all of you a bunch of Mister Smartypants. Why don't you Smartypants just go away?

We give opinions hete, not PR. So dhut the f#@& up R328. Especially with your IP address. Ok ?

lol r328

According to Michael Musto, Charles Isherwood married his long-time boyfriend today at City Hall.
But Musto never came up with the name.
Is it..... Michael Riedel? Michael Bloomberg? (well, they DID get married at City Hall). Does anyone know?

Ben%20Brantley%27s%20orthodontist

Not to be mean, but who would marry Charles Isherwood? The man never smiles.

[quote]Not to be mean, but who would marry Charles Isherwood? The man never smiles.
And he has lethal halitosis.

Cherry Jones was ok but the best still in that role was Elizabeth Ashley.

r326 Agreed about his pants. And what about Laura's "pretty" dress a la Tinkerbell. Oof.

The Glass Menagerie what just closed in Chicago was an amazing concept production and much more interesting that the production that's on Broadway. The Broadway version appeals to to people with little imagination who have a preconceived idea of what that show should be, which is why the critics and the message board people will love it.
And Gay Spock is way to "contemporary" in the role.

Where is Elizabeth Ashley now? Amazed she's still alive, I guess, but she hasn't worked in several years now....is she ok?

I%20love%20her

"he Broadway version appeals to people with little imagination who have a preconceived idea of what that show should be, which is why the critics and the message board people will love it.".............
And the queen smart-ass at R328

r337
She just took over from Lansbury in that Gore Vidal play last year.

[quote] Lansbury sees footage for first time...
Ever the actress. She knows well that b-roll footage has been on youtube for years. I highly doubt she hasn't seen it before.

r336 = Eliza Doolittle

[quote]Where is Elizabeth Ashley now? Amazed she's still alive, I guess, but she hasn't worked in several years now....is she ok?
She was on Broadway recently with "August: Osage County" and then Horton Foote's "Dividing The Estate".

I agree r327.
Zach is the real reason to see this Glass Menagerie. His monologues are worth the price of admission alone. It was like hearing Tennessee's eloquence and poetry for the first time. Zach is both utterly real and yet very theatrical.
Cherry's performance feels so effortful. Maybe if I was discovering her for the first time it would be different but she just feels like she's Acting, never inhabiting the role. She was oddly better in Act II when the craziness of the jonquil dress sort of unleashed something in her, like you finally see the character coming unhinged. Cherry's persona is too sane and upright for Amanda.
Brian J. Smith's performance is ok but also feels unnecessarily heavy-handed. Everything about Jim should be effortless and simple.
Celia is fine. Really a little too pretty for Laura. That Act II dress is horrible! What was Bob Crowley (who is normally a genius) thinking?? Looked like something pulled from a Goodspeed No No Nanette.
Yet in spite of my harsh criticisms, I really loved seeing the play and hearing Tennessee's words. Even the "flaws" still made for interesting theater. And gorgeous set and lighting and score/sound, btw! Tony winners all, to be sure.

What's the word on Big Fish?

As much as I appreciate the attempt to write an original score instead of staging a screenplay verbatim (which is what passes for musical theatre writing these days) the score to Big Fish, with one or two exceptions, is one thud after another. "Time Stops" (which sounds a lot like "A new Life" from J&H)at least has a pretty melody (finally, an hour and 15 min into the show)-but doesnt have much impact since the set up is, at least at that point in the show, or in reality, fictional. Norbert works hard (too hard) to elevate the inferior writing, but it all starts to feel manufactured an self conscious.

"The Glass Menagerie what just closed in Chicago was an amazing concept production and much more interesting that the production that's on Broadway. The Broadway version appeals to to people with little imagination who have a preconceived idea of what that show should be, which is why the critics and the message board people will love it."
Are you nuts? Love it (as most people do) or not, the Broadway production definitely DOES NOT conform to "a preconceived idea of what that show should be." Have you SEEN it?

I walked out of the Horton Foote play. Hated it. Critics gave positive reviews. I thought the acting was awful and his daughter was like the Night of the Living dead. It takes place in Texas but everyone had southern accents representing 5 different states. Foote is a critics darling....but this was crap.

I saw TGM several times in Cambridge and found Cherry's performance anything but effortful. I thought she and Quinto were perfect foils for one another. I thought CK-B was heartbreaking -the throbbing center of the play and BJ Smith was the most interesting and complex Gentleman Caller I've ever seen - and I have seen nearly all the big name productions of this play since Tandy/Plummer. I loved how every element worked together seamlessly and I am eager to see anything John Tiffany directs in the future.
I complain about the Broadway hacks who are hired again and again to stage boring and shitty versions of classic plays for tourists who don't know any better - this is not one of those times.

R340 I sent Ms. Lansbury a complete video of the MAME revival at the Gershwin. Not the greatest production or qulaity but at least it was complete. She sent a very sweet thank you note. This was when she was still living in Los Angeles right before she moved back to NY to do that play with Marian Seldes.
Speakin gof GYPSY---Saw her play Rose at the Muny in 1974 (pre Broadway tour) and she was sublime!

Ken Mendalbaum, is that you?

R324 and R340, she is as always a classy actress. I've read several interviews where she mentions that only a few parts of her Gypsy performance were filmed, so I'm sure she saw them before. She was just being kind to Michael Feinstein and pretended to be astonished.
And what is going on with his face. Bad plastic surgery? Or did he have Lucille Ball/Mame clamps behind his ears to pull back his sagging cheeks?

R350, it is weird that Mandelbaum has disappeared completely. I used to see him at Friday night performances at Encores. He always had a little crowd clustered around him at intermission in the lobby, listening to his pearls of wisdom about each show. No doubt he saw all the original productions and each replacement cast.
I always wondered if it was the same crowd that he used to travel with that would block the views of the ushers as he videotaped productions.

R358. Not real or fake mlop, I fear, but for Christ's sake, please link us to the right thread. That I gotta visit! I was expecting Ken Mandelbaum, dead or alive.

Anonymous

r359
It's Colton Haynes' ex -
Colton Haynes, the threequel!

R360. Ewwwww. But thanks! And you solved the mystery, too.

Anonymous

The body at r356 looks like an Auschwitz victim.

Anne%20Frank%2C%20belieber

I am confused - is the safe for work photo linked at R356 really Ken Mandelbaum?

I heard a bizarre rumor the other day that Genevieve Angelson, who originated Nina in VANYA....actually left shortly before the tony's because of anorexia? Truth?

David Hyde Pierce could use a few peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches.

R363. No, that's not Ken (in his dreams). See R360 for full explanation. Then let get on to another topic, like has anyone seen Chris Sieber in Pippin?

Charlotte

Thanks for the clarification; lol.
Anyway YES! I saw Chris Sieber in Pippin the Sunday before Labor Day. He was terrific, the audience LOVED him. His line readings were pefect and he looked great - not thin, but not as fat as he used to be. He has the body of a typical 44 year old aging Midwesterner, which of course is what he is.

R363

Didn't Chris Sieber make a big deal of having done that Mark Fisher Fitness Snatched thing? From the way its cult-like worshipers talk about it, I would think it should have left his body looking better than a typical 44-year-old Midwesterner's.

Chris goes up and down in weight all the time.
He's a cutie no matter how plump he gets.

re: Genevieve Angelson, she is extremely thin, and her leaving VANYA was very abrupt, but I don't think she left to get anorexia treatment. She was still tweeting about the show after she left, so she wasn't on lockdown. I think she was only in the show for about 6 weeks after opening. The official story is that she was released because she got another acting job. She is listed on imdb as filming the new Chris Rock movie, which started filming this spring, although she's way down on the cast list so her part is probably not that large and probably didn't require that many filming days.
Her understudy was not a thin girl. At all.

[quote]How does a 16 year old fresh off the bus get backstage?
I walked to the stage door and knocked. When the man answered, we asked to see Mr. Hiken, and were called into his dressing room. It's not that big a deal. Gerald Hiken was by then a 65 year-old actor, not exactly well-known outside of serious theater people. There wasn't anyone else who came backstage or waited at the stage door, even though the gorgeous Benjamin Hendrickson - in his prime, and the delightful Tania Elg were also in the cast.
Oh, and I was fresh off the train, not the bus!
Funny, I just finished a six-week round of Snatched in Six Weeks too. I didn't have a lot of weight to lose, but got great results, which I am working hard to keep. If you like to laugh and really want to get in shape fast, fun, and with an exceptional amount of profanity, try it out! New registration starts tomorrow. It's the nicest cult in town, and boy what it will do for your ass!

First%20Night%20Fanny

When I was a teenager, I would walk in the stage door and ask to see actors I wanted to meet. Usually, the doorman had me wait with for the actor to come down but one time, he sent me write up to the dressing room.

Did you hook up with any of them, r374? Or did any at least make a pass?

Anyone ever do Chris Sieber??
He looks like he would be an uninhibited sex partner; he also looks well-hung.

Roundabout's revival of DINNER WITH FRIENDS has been cancelled due to the withdrawal of its two leading ladies. One would rather stay home watching her bacon; the other wants to spend more time with cousin Vinny.
When was Roundabout planning to announce it to their members?

and of course a not for profit subscription based theatre can only cast a 4 character play with MOVIE STARS!

On my very first visit to NYC in 1993, I had tix for a matinee of "The Who's Tommy" and just happened to be standing near the stage door, in line with everybody else, when someone (a crew person perhaps) stepped out of the stage door, asked me if I was with the show, and said I could go on in if I wanted. (I figure it was the way I was dressed: I was wearing jeans and a kind of multi-colored shirt, and oddly enough another theatregoer waiting on line had also asked me if I was with the show.) Anyway, I thought about saying yes to the crew guy just so I could go backstage but feared I'd only get so far before someone would realize I didn't belong back there and tell me to get the fuck out, so I declined.
Ah, life's little lost opportunities.

r376 saw it at the gym. Average.

The girl from Vanya was dealing with an eating disorder.

It wasn't an eating disorder. I just wasn't hungry for a few months.

David%20Hyde%20Pierce

Marissa Tomei and...?

Me too R373. When I was in high school, Lotte Lenya invited me and my friend back to her dressing room at the Imperial where CABARET had transferred. That's when I got to meet Jill Haworth too. I had a major crush on Haworth after I saw EXODUS. Ms. Lenya and Jill could not have been nicer. I kept in touch with Jill until two years ago when she passed away.

kcguy

[R379], I don't think you missed much and I wouldn't think of it as a lost opportunity. At least nowadays, there's a doorman right inside so you would have been stopped right away. And it would be like entering an office building without a directory or floor plan. You'd have had no idea which way to go, and if the show was about to start, someone would have noticed pretty quickly if you started wandering around on the stage. There is a glamour associated with being past the stage door, but you would probably just have been wandering around empty corridors until you got bored or got discovered. And they might have barred you from the theater and you might have lost your tickets for the matinee.

....Kyra Sedgwick?
But who were the men?

Frank Di-How-Low-Can-He-Go sings in OnStage Across America for September, and today on NY1's OnStage we watch him work out. Why must we see this boy shill his un-talents.
The only good thing is that his funky hair looks good for thr first time.

And to think his parents pay for all this moronic moron stage crapola.

Donna%2C%20with%20a%20job%20nonetheless

[quote]And they might have barred you from the theater and you might have lost your tickets for the matinee.
R385, it's funny you mention this because that was actually the FIRST thing that crossed my mind in that moment when I was debating should I/should I not, that not only would they have kicked me out, they would've taken my ticket away and banned me from the theater. It was the main reason I said nope, not worth it.

R379

[quote]How does a 16 year old fresh off the bus get backstage?
Ask Cristin Milioti.

gobble gobble gulp

Good to see Cheyenne's ex moving on with a theatre producer ! Staying in the theatre world!

I heard one of the men was Josh Hamilton.

"Good memories of seeing the divine Joan Hackett in the thriller NIGHT WATCH at the Morosco. And my college group a week i NY) always stayed next door at the Piccadilly Hotel. They had the greatest bar there.. where 18 year olds could get a drink."
Not such a big deal when the drinking age is 18.

[R336] The concept of showing the play from the vantage point of Tom's later life seems to be a pretty warn out way of doing it.
I saw a production at least a decade ago where an elderly Tom imagined his family in the setting of a peek show on 42nd Street to the accompaniment of Tom Waits recording. And many others have done something similar before Chicago. (I have seen two others with a Tom in a present far removed from 1930s St. Louis.)
I am not saying that this recently closed production was not good. But I honestly would not want to see another production with that kind of concept.

R393- It was for university kids on a week long theatre dept. spring break trip from Springfield,Mo where the drinking age was 21.

kcguy

Does Max Von Essen have a boyfriend who is in The Fantasticks?

Re that cute little house manager at Second Stage. Who has sucked him off?

[quote]I kept in touch with Jill until two years ago when she passed away.
That was no reason to stop writing.

Jill

Did Jill pronounce her last name Hah-worth, or Hay-worth?

R399- It was HAW-worth but through the years people called her HAY-worth.

George Lane, agent at CAA. Any stories?

[quote]George Lane, agent at CAA. Any stories?
Check out PARADISE LOST or FAUST. There are a couple of stories about him in those.

r402 so you're saying he is Satan?

This FOLLIES number should be posted in EVERY THEATER THREAD.
I saw her do it at the Papermill theater live - it was beyond fabulous then and remains beyond fabulous now!

[quote] It was HAW-worth
"Haw" as in "Straw"? I listened to an interview with her not long before she died, and I think she pronounced it "Ha-worth" as in "Ha ha ha" [laugh]...

r404
That's not a patch on her studio recording, where she proved that she really got the song.

Bet yer bottom dollar that Annie wont make it past October.

R404 - I don't know whether to laugh or cry...

Bobbie%20Goldman

R407. Annie Miller didn't make it to this century. Oh, that Annie. You mean the one where Faith Prince appears occasionally.

Anonymous

Interesting about Monte (the former Mrs. Jackson) now being with a producer. I wonder which one it could be. I have to say I never bought into the whole "oh Monte hates showbiz" stuff. He always looked very involved and very interested in the machinations of theater. And didn't he used to lay out Cheyenne's audition outfits? And his song sets for concerts?

Joe%20Aaron%20Reid

R406. You're right. This is pretty much as I remember her at Paper Mill, old and camp, but on the recording she pulls herself together and really sells the song.

Elaines%20Paige%20and%20Stritch

[quote]George Lane, agent at CAA. Any stories?
Gerard Schoenfeld (spelling?) hated him. His bio his some stuff on him. He eventually told Lane he 'd never speak to him again.

Even on the recording, Ann Miller shows that she really didn't understand the song. But then the director didn't really understand the show, either.
Sondheim knew that and refused to let it move, but let James Goldman's wife take the heat for the decision - but it was all his.
This was back when he still had some standards. Clearly, he has none anymore, and will approve anything if the money's good.

I think at the age of 80-something there's really no reason for Sondheim not to let go and let them do whatever they want with his stuff because he's smart enough to know that once he's gone, they will anyway.

Diane%20Paulus%2C%20chomping%20at%20the%20bit

Christ the tempo on that I'm Still Here video is ridiculous....it gets so fast she can barely keep up!

"Even on the recording, Ann Miller shows that she really didn't understand the song. But then the director didn't really understand the show, either. Sondheim knew that and refused to let it move, but let James Goldman's wife take the heat for the decision - but it was all his. This was back when he still had some standards. Clearly, he has none anymore, and will approve anything if the money's good."
I sure don't agree about Ann Miller as Carlotta. And if what you say about Sondheim being the one who prevented the Paper Mill production from transferring to Broadway, that's pretty tragic considering that they wound up with the Roundabout debacle instead. The most recent revival was much better than Roundabout's but still not as good as Paper Mill's.

I didn't like Paper Mill's FOLLIES. Boring. 2001 revival was worse. The most recent revival was pretty good.

The casting at Paper Mill was spotty - some good choices (Donna as Sally, Dee Hoty as Phyllis), some REALLY bad (Tony Roberts as a non-dancing Buddy, Eddie Bracken (!) as Weissman, and, alas, Ann Miller), but not nearly as bad as the 4 leads in the Roundabout revival.
The best things about the Paper Mill production were the physical production - sets and costumes of death (it's said the show's ballooning budget was the reason Paper Mill went bankrupt a few years later - never made back the money), and the fact that the recording made of this production also including ALL the songs Sondheim ever wrote for Follies - including all the cut numbers.

Steven%20Klar

Papermill's FOLLIES was exactly like its Hillary Knight poster - cotton candy and Disney-fied. The only one in it who had a clue what she was doing was Donna McKechnie. I'd be hard-pressed to pick which one was worse, Papermill or 2001. The recent one wasn't wonderful, but it was better than either of those.

Saw Ken Mandelbaum a few days ago on West 10th St.
He looks as usual like the walking dead, but is very much alive. Talk about someone who needs a sandwich!

Hurray. Waking up to DL where it really counts: dissing the Paper Mill Follies, but at least the girls are all happy with the attention Follies and Sondheim are getting, for a change.

Alexis%2C%20now%20a%20corpse

The Papermill Follies was a lot of fun, but it wasn't really Follies. It was more like "These Old Broads put on a show." It's a shame, though, that Ann Miller didn't do Broadway Baby. That was the perfect part for her. (Though not big enough for a star.)

"The Papermill Follies was a lot of fun, but it wasn't really Follies. It was more like "These Old Broads put on a show." It's a shame, though, that Ann Miller didn't do Broadway Baby. That was the perfect part for her. (Though not big enough for a star.)"
You got that right.

Mimi%20Hines

Really, all someone does is mention fucking Follies and the thread goes to shit. Gossip folks. Make yourselves a damn Follies thread if it's so interesting.

Did you all notice that my entrance at the PMP was staged so that I came on after Phyllis and Ben?

Annie%20Miller

[quote] Even on the recording, Ann Miller shows that she really didn't understand the song.
How so?

SHIT THE FUCK UP ABOUT FUCKING FOLLIES

r428
Even writing "Follies" means that more will come.

Why is there so much paper and discount tickets around for OPENING NIGHT of ROMEO & JULIET? Are sales that bad? Can't the producers (and there must be hundreds of them) fill the house with comps for an OPENING? That's just bad producing...

Ken%20Davenport

R405- You are absolutely right. HA was correct as in HA-worth.

Didn't like the Paper Mill cutting out "Lucy and Jessie" because Dee Hoty couldn't dance it. Neither could Blythe Danner although that didn't stop her from giving it the old gung ho. Danner's bumping into chorus boys was entertaining. About the only entertaining thing in that awful Roundabout mess. I agree with the previous poster the lrecent revival was much better. saw it with Peters and with Victoria Clark. Suprisingly, I liked Clark the best and I've never been too much of a fan.

Old enough to have seen the original with Alexis and Dorothy ...twice!

Dee Hoty's wonderful on the CD but she made little impression on stage.

With Matilda on TKTS now for all performances, are people finally realizing that $140.00 is way too much to pay for another over rated British musical a la Billy Elliot? They are wasting money running commercials all the time. Nothing opening this fall smells like a smash. Lots of premature closings like R+J. But Soul Doctor keeps running.....huh?

Same old suspects for The Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS Flea Market celebrity table. The only difference, the ABC soaps aren't in NY anymore and the table would be full of them too. Who wants to pay $120 to meet the same people?
How come Liza has never hauled her ass down ever, and the celebrity MC is her friend and a dancer in her show? Or NY'ers Sarah Jessica and Matthew Broderick?
If these organizers had some brains they would get some big stars a table each and $20 for ONE signature and keep the line moving. Orlando Bloom and Ian McKellen would bring in the Rings fans, Patrick Stewart and Zachary Quinto the Star Trek fans. But Stewart and Quinto charge $75 plus at autograph shows so they probably don't want to give it away.

Heading over to London in October for a couple weeks of work. Any recommendations on what to see? I was thinking 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', maybe the new musical 'From Here to Eternity' or the play 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time'.

Curious Incident is great.
If the score is anything to judge by, From Here To Eternity could be Carrie-level bad.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an airless, joyless affair. The score makes zero impression. Shaiman and Whittman don't have an original idea between them. And sad to say, Laurents was right: Mendes really doesn't know how to direct a musical.

R434 - Romeo and Juliet truly was awful.
Matilda was hugely over-rated.
And I already mentioned my thoughts about The Glass Menagerie in r327. I sort of want to see it again though just for Quinto.

Tickets for Matilda are $150 and I agree that those of us who suffered through Billy Elliott are wary of throwing away good money on another British kid musical.
I thought Danner bumping around in Follies much better than Jan Maxwell's. Maxwell always seemed so uncomfortable in the number and only herself not Phyllis. At least Danner understood the role and kept character while bumping. I agree that of the three Follies revivals the last one was the best if not all it could have been. I liked it better than then Cook concert version as well.

R438, haven't been to them yet, but Chimerica has been getting excellent reviews. The production values are meant to be stunning.
The Young Vic's A Doll's House transfer looks interesting. Digital Theatre recorded it.
The three best shows of the season - Sweet Bird of Youth, the outdoor Sound of Music, and The Color Purple at the Menier, have closed sadly.

So will Broadway be deprived of a Sweet Bird of Youth revival yet again?
Why does Cat keep getting revived and never Sweet Bird? The Princess is a sure-fire role for a movie star of a certain age.

Yes, but if that movie was "Mannequin", investors are likely to be wary.

SJP

Broderick has done the autograph table in the past. I do think most of the bigger stars don't want to deal with it anymore....there are some frightening people waiting in that line.
I know it is for a good cause, and I'm glad more and more money is being raised, but I haven't enjoyed the Broadway Flea Market for the past three or four years. Too crowded too early with insane stalkers/fangurls of both sexes and less and less interesting stuff.

That's because "Marie Antoinette Let The Masses Pay Market Rents" Maxwell was too preoccupied with how to preserve her fancy, subsidized Manhattan Plaza digs while thousands of unemployed and starving artists were plotting to storm the gates.

WTF is up with the "new" Telecharge? I know it's ugly and slow - but now it just doesn't work.
Typical of today's society, I'm sure the person who made the change will get a promotion.

R438, check out Edward II at The National.

But R441, you have to remember, prior to the Lincoln Center concert there wasn't a recording of the entire score. So it was a big deal at the time.

The Lincoln Center Follies concert was a faux-event, desperately trying to generate an excitement that simply wasn't there.

If the Lincoln Center Concert was to preserve the whole score, why did they make so many cuts?

It was recorded in the days of LP - it was to be a 2-record set, which it was. So they recorded enough to fit 2 vinyl albums, which is less space than 2 cds - hence the cuts.
That's why when it came out on CD, they filled out the second disc with the (until then) unreleased Sondheim score from "Stavisky".

Thomas%20Z.%20Shepard

They should have just cut Mandy Patinkin out

So, Neil Patrick Harris and Josh Radnor played lovers in THE PARIS LETTER before HIMYM? Who was the naked one? And who got the other the job on MOTHER?

R450, the excitement was certainly there. It was a true, thrilling event.

As predicted, Dame Brantley creams himself over Mr. Burns. If it's pretentious, he can't help but overpraise the shit.

[quote]When was the last time you met a new play that was so smart it made your head spin? Not in years, huh? Well, get ready to reel, New York. Anne Washburn’s downright brilliant “Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play” has arrived to leave you dizzy with the scope and dazzle of its ideas.
Someone should put him out of his misery...

[quote]Broderick has done the autograph table in the past.
When? I've been going since the beginning and have never seen him. Nathan has been there every time he's been in a show. But never Broderick or SJP.

The play gets worse as it goes. The second act is particularly needless and unfunny. The third act as least some attitude. Too bad it's smugness.

Both actors are nude in The Paris Letter. In NY it was Jason Butler Harner and big dicked Daniel Gold.

"If the Lincoln Center Concert was to preserve the whole score, why did they make so many cuts?"
Because that project may have started out with the best of intentions, but at some point those intentions got lost in the shuffle for various reasons.
"It was recorded in the days of LP - it was to be a 2-record set, which it was. So they recorded enough to fit 2 vinyl albums, which is less space than 2 cds - hence the cuts."
Wrong. The full running time of an uncut peformance of FOLLIES is about two hours (not including intermission). The Philharmonic concert eliminated almost all of the book, so that cut down the running time considerably. Two LPs would have more than enough room to contain the entire score of the show.
But thanks anyway.

Mr. Burns was one of the worst nights in the theater...
That.
I.
Have.
EVER.
Spent.
Sweet Jebus on the cross.

How long before Tim Sanford has to send out another letter defending/apologizing for MR. BURNS because his subscribers are hating it?

Are people here serious abou their MR BURNS hatred? It was one of my top five nights in the theatre ever. Just astonishingly good.

[quote]So will Broadway be deprived of a Sweet Bird of Youth revival yet again?
Yes. We were already robbed on the Harold Pinter-directed 1985 National Tour starring Lauren Bacall and Michael (Xanadu) Beck!

First%20Night%20Fanny

What cuts were made in the score for the FOLLIES IN CONCERT recording? The only thing I can think of is the dance music for "Lucy and Jessie", but you all seem to be talking about more serious cuts than just some dance music.

Mr. Burns was an interesting conceit spun out endlessly and maddeningly over many many hours.

If I were Matt Groening, I'd sue to make sure MR. BURNS closes immediately and never gets produced again - although it purports to be "homage", it really is a denigration of the Simpsons in a most unflattering way.
Danny Elfman should also sue, for uncredited appropriation and malfeseant interpretation of his iconic music.
AND IT'S BORING, which also does a disservice to The Simpsons.
All the critics are cumming over it - I saw John Simon there Friday night and he didn't seem to enjoy it all. Too bad he doesn't have an outlet for his criticism anymore.

If you never watched Thr Simpsons would you "get" MR BURNS?

The whole first act is exposition of a Simpsons episode to get you prepared for the rest of the play. 50 minutes or so of just boring talk about a SIMPSONS episode.
So, if you've never seen a Simpson's episode, you should be prepped, if you stay awake during that first act.

A%20Golden%20Girls%20episode%20would%20have%20been%20better

[quote]In NY it was Jason Butler Harner and big dicked Daniel Gold.
I thought Jason Butler Harner was big-dicked, too. Or was Hold so huge that Harner paled by comparison.
And who had the bigger dick in LA, NPH or Radnor?

Saw Anna Nicole he opera
Where was the music???

Saw Old Friends and thought it was a lot of fun if not the deepest play ever, but I have some questions.
How was the Betty Buckley character related to the Lois Smith character's family that she kept having her meltdowns in her homes?
How was the Hallie Foote character related to the Lois Smith character?
Was the Cotter Smith character related to the Lois Smith character?
How was the young hot guy related to any of them that he was suddenly in the mix and being taken to NY?
There was so much exposition at the beginning probably explaining all of this, but I just couldn't keep track.

The critics aren't doing the theatre any favors by praising things like MR. BURNS. Admire the hell out of it if you like, but don't confuse it with a crowd-pleaser.
The critics are just confirming suspicions that they're wanna-be tastemakers with no taste. Watch the usual small group of lemmings come out and fall to their knees on cue while the larger audience walks out at one of the two intermissions and swears off going to plays for a year.

What posters here are saying about MR. BURNS (which I haven't seen) is pretty much what I said about THE FLICK. And I got lambasted here by a bunch of queens.

The actor playing Ali in "Fetch Clay" is HOT!

I actually LOVED The Flick, but I can see why people hated it and walked out. It should have been reviewed accordingly, instead of as the new Doubt/Death Of A Salesman/ Clydeborne Park etc.

R476, is that a play about Cloris Leachman's sister?

r476
Yes, he is amazing looking but he is a cartoon Ali. The Stepin Fetchiit - while not hot - was utterly brilliant.
In attendance when I was there were Larry Kramer and the very manly and heterosexual Norm Lewis and David Alan Grier.

Could Patrick Wilson be stepping into Big Fish?
Or replacing Pasquale in Bridges of Madison County? He's much sexier.

Patrick Wilson is bland and charm free
But handsome

Is Patrick Kelly last year's Aaron Tveit? It sure sounds like it.

Josh%20Lucas

I loved the Flick, disliked Mr. Burns. The latter had an interesting concept, but the execution was painful. The 3rd act was tedious beyond belief.
Brantley was so over the top, and when he addresses his readers—"Get ready, kids!" I want to vomit.

Patrick Wilson is doing a one man "Follies" concert

oh, Follies! Follies!

masturbating%20DataLounger

R482 should have read Patrick Wilson not Kelly. Oops.

Aaron%20Tweit

Re: "Mr. Burns..."
Does anyone write anything that doesn't appropriate the successes of others? What the hell is it with this "I'm going to riff on this" trend. It's like the worst quality of rap music: sampling.
Don't these authors have any self respect? Or are they just happy to admit to the world they don't have a single, solitary original idea in their trust-fund, ivy-leagued brains?

Brantley must've decided he's the new Cindy Adams, kids.

I also saw and loved THE FLICK, but disliked MR. BURNS immensely although I admired what it was trying to do. Not being much of a Simpson's fan, I had no way into this show.
I love what R474 said:
[quote]wanna-be tastemakers with no taste.
I'm going to steal that phrase. It's so accurate - at least in this case.

[quote]Does anyone write anything that doesn't appropriate the successes of others?
Well, collage was the art form of the 20th Century, and theatre is always late to the game.

"Could Patrick Wilson be stepping into Big Fish?
Or replacing Pasquale in Bridges of Madison County? He's much sexier."
Disagree. I saw Pasquale in BRIDGES in Williamstown - he's plenty sexy and he sings the score beuatifully. I think he's a much better singer than Wilson, who has a great body but is rather vanilla/bland.
The person who should be replaced in BRIDGES is O'Hara, who's much too Doris Day to play an Italian immigrant. But she's something of a name....

There's nothing untoward or uncreative about appropriating the work of others....as long as you bring your own ideas to the table and have something original to say a la Shakespeare, who borrowed unashamedly from antique sources. If you're going to, say, adapt a movie into a musical, fine...but glean another interpretation from the material or impose your own. Don't just toss the screenplay onstage without a new concept and lard it with painfully predictable and obvious "songs," as is the trend.

Patrick Wilson is doing his one-man spectacular...
... in his hometown.

I've only seen Wilson in Angels In America, and I thought he was a standout among a lot of competition.

Not%20dickmatisized

The Hung Men of Broadway, a coffee table book arriving just in time for Christmas
Featuring
Patrick Wilson
Roger Bart
Tyler Maynard
Colin O'Donnell
And many others, including ...

Guess I won't be in that book (sigh)

Max V.E.

[bold] Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle Join Cast of NBC's Sound of Music [/bold]
Tony Award winners Audra McDonald, Laura Benanti and Christian Borle will be part of the cast of NBC's live Dec. 5 broadcast of the classic Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.
Five-time Tony winner McDonald will portray Mother Abbess with Benanti as Elsa Schrader and Borle as Max Dettweiler.
As previously reported, six-time Grammy Award winner Carrie Underwood is set to star as Maria with Stephen Moyer as World War I hero Capt. Georg Von Trapp. The three-hour production will be based on the original 1959 Broadway musical, which starred Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel.
The music and lyrics for The Sound of Music were written by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, respectively, with a book by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse.
Advertisement
The upcoming TV musical is executive-produced by Neil Meron and Craig Zadan. Beth McCarthy-Miller and Rob Ashford will serve as directors.
The presentation will be produced by Universal Television.

Bring out the An Ordinary Couple hate once more!
I really hope they use one of the more recent scripts that have I Have Confidence. However, having seen the West End revival and the outdoor production in London, both of them still had different song placement.

Kelli played Italian before in Light in the Piazza when she was Fabrizzio's sister in law before she took Clara away from Celia Keenan-Bolger....

No R499, "I Have Confidence" is not being used. They are doing the original theatrical version, with the song placement as originally produced, with only one exception: they are replacing "An Ordinary Couple" with "Something Good."

And Audra has it in her contract that she can do a new Michael John LaChuisa song in place of Climb Every Mountain.

R501 so they are using My Favorite Things in the original spot where it was just to cover a scene change and using Goatherd in the bedroom scene?

One can only imagine what Hitler might do with Audra McDonald ...

Yes, R503. "My Favorite Things" will be sung by Maria and the Mother Abbess.

r503, the original "My Favorite Things" spot didn't cover a scene change, it was during a full scene in the Mother Abbess's office. The scene change was during a brief partial reprise when Maria was singing it in the hall and was caught by one of the nuns.

It was just the way his lips slowly hugged the rim of that cup of warm coffee

[quote]only one exception: they are replacing "An Ordinary Couple" with "Something Good."
Well of course. I must be the only person in the world who prefers "An Ordinary Couple." over "Something Good." Not surprising they would use the movie song instead.

kcguy

[quote]Kelli played Italian before in Light in the Piazza when she was Fabrizzio's sister in law before she took Clara away from Celia Keenan-Bolger
And Kelli was quite good too.

kcguy

Well, at least SOM has replaced Follies for the time being. Who would have thought? I want to know more about The Amazing Adele.

Tammy%20Grimes

I predicted Christian Borle for Max back in June. They made the right choice.

Lynn%20Stairmaster

Were Kander and Ebb ever a couple?

So BAA finally bounced Beth Williams? How many millions of burned money and relationships does she leave behind? Are they pulling out of Little Miss Sunshine? What happens to Tuck?

Yes Jason Butler Harner is nicely hung but Gold is even bigger.
And Norm Lewis is not straight.

Is that true, R513? Good news, if so. But I wonder if it's too late. The damage has been done.

Congrats to Kelli and her husband on their new baby girl born today!! Looking forward to her in "Bridges"
On another note, what is the feedback on the recent reading of "Rumors" and a possible spring revival of this Neil Simon's play? The reading had Martin Short, Matthew Broderick and Andrea Martin involved. That would be an awesome cast if they revive it...

I thought Celia K-B left Piazza by choice - to do Spelling Bee.

No she didn't R518. Kelli felt guilty about getting the role and CKB was a class act, telling her she was right for the role and that she Celia wasn't.

The Flick is just as bad as Mr. Burns. Where Burns was over-written, Flick was underwritten. Both plays should have been 90 minutes, no intermission. And both plays were over-directed by directors who have no one to tell them their shit doesn't stink.

Yes!! Super hottie Adam Jacobs will be Aladdin on broadway. I'm dragging my 5 year old god daughter whether she likes it or not.

Jafar

In what fucking universe did Kelli play an Italian in LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA?????
Are you people insane?

I would like to suggest to Mr. Steggert that his coming out of the closet is not a pivotal moment in history, does not require a proclamation, and a simple "Thank you" would have sufficed.

R522, Kelli played Franca instead of Clara when the show was being developed at the Goodman Theatre.

Is Kelli really retarded or was she acting?

R522, are you an idiot? The poster who brought up Kelli playing Italian before
mentioned the when and where right there in his post.
Maybe you should pay attention and not be so quick to ask if people are insane, when you're the dumbbell who's just embarrassed himself.

But in spite of the fact she was "promoted" doesn't the fact that Kelli was no longer playing an Italian by the time the show got to NY mean she wasn't right in the role?

[R528] Obviously she can play Italian! She obviously IS Italian!!! Why else would she spell her name in the Italian way "Kelli" instead of the Irish way "Kelly"?
I'm so sick of Irish people playing Italians!! One would think being an actor, required acting skills like learning dialects, character studies and wearing wigs. I think it's especially important in this show since it will be played in Italian with subtitles in English.
Remember in the original Nine when a Cuban played an Italian? Made me sick!!
Goddamn it, next thing you know we will be forced to believe that a COLORED WOMAN could play Carrie Pipperidge or Mother Abbess believably!!
Don't get me started on those gay Asians playing straight Munchkins.

Why is this starting to sound like the noise the fucking trolls make over at ATC?
Enough already.

Hey guys, I'm here!

buzzie, dancing on a cloud with cascading stars all around!

r529 Raul Julia is Puerto Rican - but who's counting?
I don't give a shit - Audra is a star. I don't believe her as the Abbess - but there's nothing realistic about musicals anyway - they are fantastical by nature.

Yes, Beth Williams is out. Its true.

Buzzie don't flame too much or Chazwaza will have even more gay panic to have to deal with over there. Who knew Bobby Steggert coming out and a quick quip he makes was going to have that kind of impact? Will Bobby now have to tweet about the further furor his sexuality has caused on theater chat boards?

Bobby would rather do the McNally play than BIG FISH, but FISH pays more.

Audra is five years older now than Patricia Neway was when she originated the role of the Mother Abbess on Broadway in 1959.
Once you're in that wimple, you can be any age.
Just ask Lady Gaga...

re: SOM--has it been ascertained that Carrie Underwood can actually speak two consecutive lines of dialogue convincingly? (live, no less) and if so, are we to believe she stumbled from some tail gating party to a convent in Austria??

and Laura Benanti-from Maria to the Baroness--that was a quick journey--next year-replacing Tovah in Pippin or maybe Mrs Higgins?
Watch out Laura Osnes-this is your future

Christine%20Andreas

lol tailgating - so.true

Yes

Where is the visual proof that any of those gents are hung. Post your proof

You forgot Raul, r538.

I wouldn't worry too much about Bobby. BIG FISH will be long gone before the McNally play starts rehearsals.

Can someone reference the Cheyenne video to All That Chat, so that I can witness people's heads explode.

HOW%20IS%20THIS%20ON%20TOPIC%21

HA! R548- Yes, that would be epic!

ANN of No ImportANNce

Audra will nail Climb Every Mountain and will be perfect in the role. Maybe they will get the little child who was fired from ITW film to play Gretl as a compensation. I'm sure some Broadway ladies will be the nuns in [...]- Maybe Patti is available to play the grumpy one.

[quote]has it been ascertained that Carrie Underwood can actually speak two consecutive lines of dialogue convincingly? (live, no less) and if so, are we to believe she stumbled from some tail gating party to a convent in Austria??
You think they are going to risk millions on a live TV show without auditioning her first? Christ, the theater Queens are beside themselves that they didn't chose some obscure Broadway actor.

I can't wait until the new scene where she takes a baseball bat to all the Captain's belongings because of his engagement to the Baroness. That'll really speak to her demographic.

Sub-saharan Africans weren't high up on the Nazis' list of human populations they wanted to exterminate. Hitler and co. also had civil relations with the Catholic Church, especially in predominantly Catholic countries like Austria, so it's conceivable that a black nun who had risen far enough in the ranks to be made head of a convent would have had protected status. Josephine Baker (black), Django Reinhardt (Gypsy), and Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas (Jews) were allowed to live out the Nazi occupation in France because they were beloved cultural icons and it would have pissed people off if they were carted away to death camps.

It would be hilarious if there was a fuck-up on live tv. Coughing fit from one of the nuns or a kid swearing.

Exciting casting for Rolf.... NOT!
Anthony Federov, former American Idol runner up who has played this role in stock at Paper Mill.

Katherine McPhee...... I am Liesl!!!

Do you have a link for the Federov info, r558?

The part of Frau Schmidt will be played by Eddie Murphy.

PC%20Fairy

I'm going to do my best to befriend Carrie Underwood, and if for some reason she takes ill on the day of performance, I'd be happy to step in for her.
P.S. Have Brooke Shields on standby for Elsa.

Laura%20B

[quote]Patrick Wilson, Jason Butler Harner, Daniel Gold, Daniel Sunjata, John Slattery, Jake Weber and David Burtka have all exhibited their wares on stage or film. The others have had anecdotal reports here on DL, from those who have either tasted or seen their dicks backstage.

Enough of this SOUND OF MUSIC shit! Who gives a flying fuck where they position The Lonely Goatherd! Would all of you ATC and BWW queens get the fuck out and let the adults get back to talking about which chorus boy is fucking who?

Buzzie%2C%20feeling%20a%20major%20relapse%20comin%27%20on...

R563. I dunno. Look at that sad legion of sex objects in your post. Maybe it would be better to go back to Sound of Mucus. But no Fucking Follies, please. That really is ATC.

Ann%20M.

Who wants to see me get naked?

MockingbirdGirl

[quote] let the adults get back to talking about which chorus boy is fucking who?
The Broadway Sex Thread is calling you. They've resorted to discussing Telly Leung.

Chazwaza has really come out of nowhere to become one of the biggest "I never tire of hearing myself talk!" blowhards on that board.
I'd still take 100 of his posts over 1 from that smug asshole ryhog, though.

I heard "smug asshole". Is someone calling me?

Michael%20Portantiere

Chazwaza's never-ending gay panic is hard to take. This queen needs to see a therapist so he can come to terms with his sexuality and to stop equating gay with bad.

[quote]It would be hilarious if there was a fuck-up on live tv. Coughing fit from one of the nuns or a kid swearing.
Enjoy it, East coasters, because it will be censored by the time it makes it out to our time zone.

PST/PDT

Uh-oh. Too much ATC cross-referencing. Ann M. will banish us all for impugning her favorites. She needs to get on the Pittsburgh thread quickly, it's her hometown.

Dramedy%2C%20up%20to%20his%20nuts%20in%20nuts

Is it true that Mockingbird Girl is one of the Roundabout's most annoying telemarketers? She is just one of many who don't take NO for an answer to their constant nagging.

Anonymous

The Blog news on Bierko as Trunchbull is not good. He finally went on last night. One person compared him to Jeffrey Tambor in La Cage a few years ago, and that's pretty grim.

Bertie

That's what I've heard R572

MikeR, inspecting dramedy's weekly nut

is Bierko still heavy? will the scooter hold him?

C.%20Sieber%2C%20fluctuating

Would Chris Sieber and Craig Bierko be classified as fit-fat or just fat?

Matt Bomer to play Monty Clift?!?!? WTF?
Bomer is talent-free, charisma-challenged, and white bread-bland.
Good God, I hope this is a Lifetime Movie.

[quote]Will Audra say "Maria what is it you cunt face"?
Why do you think I took the job? Every diva in town was vying for the chance to say "What is it, you cunt face?" to Carrie Underwear.

Chris Hoch was GREAT as Trunchball. Let him do it or Chris Sieber. Craig Bierko, gurl please.

Jill Paice is lovely in MATILDA. But Richard Blake is HOT.

Broadway babies Helene York and Annaleigh Ashford showing everything but the beef curtains in "Masters of Sex" on Showtime.

Bierko and Sieber fluctuate. Sieber goes from hot to fat to hot to fit fat all in the course of a month sometimes.

R582. A month? Someone told me it was often in the course of just one evening.

Anonymous

[quote]We’ve learned that a Tony Award-winning composer, who received rave reviews for writing a major Broadway hit, didn’t actually do all the work themselves! The musical was actually put together by a ghost writer and no one knows. Tricky, tricky!!
Blind item from another site. This is Cyndi Lauper, right?

re: Carrie Underpants previously undemonstrated acting ability-anybody remember Chynna Phillips in "Bye Bye Birdie"??
maybe South Pacific or Annie Get Your Gun would have been a better fit for her--but probably best that in addition to everything else, she doesnt have to be funny (AGYG)

"We’ve learned that a Tony Award-winning composer, who received rave reviews for writing a major Broadway hit, didn’t actually do all the work themselves! The musical was actually put together by a ghost writer and no one knows. Tricky, tricky!!"
Adam Guettel

maybe it will wind up being good--after all, there are respectable talented people involved, but every time I see that "Rocky" commercial i think it's a joke

r584 Lauper / Oremus, I bet.
r588, Why would anyone write a blind item about someone who won aTony ten years ago!

It fits!

Cyndi Lauper IS a songwriter and I just don't see her being that devious. She has publicly discussed working on this for several years.

[quaote]Why would anyone write a blind item about someone who won aTony ten years ago!
Because that is how blind items work. If there isn't anything good nowadays to use for the blind item, they dig up something ancient knowing that the reading will try to make a contemporary connection. It is a bit of a bait and switch.
Just an FYI, I know that Mel Brooks did have a ghost composer. Whether the blind item is about him, I cannot say. However, the item does fit him.

Saw "Glass Menagerie" last night. Lovely, and devastating. Keenan gains an amazing amount of power onstage by doing virtually nothing. Quinto is terrific.
However.
Whoever said that Cherry Jones is channeling Hyacinth Bucket was right on the nose. Dear. Fucking. God. What the hell was that fucked-up character voice???

I miss Patricia Routledge.

[quote] Broadway babies Helene York and Annaleigh Ashford showing everything but the beef curtains in "Masters of Sex" on Showtime.
They both have such small titties that it hardly counts as nudity.

Karen%20xo

LOL, that was me R594!!
She was essentially playing Hyacinth, most egregiously in the first act. No doubt.

In the BI, tricky tricky seems like some kinda hint but I can't figure out what it is.

So are some of you queens saying that Cherry Jones is playing Amanda with a fruity English accent? That's very hard to believe.